


My Mother's Daughter

by shieldmaiden19



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alice is trying her best, Alice takes none of Hal's crap and moves her daughters out, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Badass Betty Cooper, Betty grows up in the Southside, F/M, Good Parent FP Jones II, Happy Bughead content I promise, Happy Jughead Jones, Jughead's mom travels for work, Riverdale AU, Southside Serpent Betty Cooper, The Jones family is all together, The Serpent Crew, bughead - Freeform, like actually happy, so she won't be appearing, the Joneses are all smartasses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-25 20:16:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16667605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shieldmaiden19/pseuds/shieldmaiden19
Summary: One Serpent keeps their life together. Another falls apart. Their children always find a way to meet in the middle.





	My Mother's Daughter

Mornings without Mom kind of sucked.

But as Jughead clattered down the stairs to the kitchen, he had to admit those days had two things going for them: Dad always made extra time – and bacon – for him and Jellybean those mornings, and he let Jughead have coffee.

“Morning, brother dear,” Jellybean chirped before crumbling more bacon onto her maple oatmeal and shoveling it in her mouth.

Jughead rolled his eyes and slid onto the island stool next to her. Dad set a huge mug of coffee – ooh, he’d added hazelnut syrup – and a plate full of bacon in front of his son and clapped him on the back. “Stay safe at school today."

If he hadn’t been guzzling the coffee as fast as he could, Jughead would have scoffed. Instead he gave his dad a look and set the mug down. “Southside kids can’t be any worse to me than the wrestling team is.”

His dad smacked the counter with his hand. “I mean it, Jug!”

Jughead and Jellybean shared a confused look. Dad never yelled. “Dad, what gives?” JB appealed.

He swiped a hand down his face tiredly. “You guys know I grew up there - the Southside. And when you’re old enough, Little Bean, I’ll be happy to tell you that story. It’s not a pretty place, and now there’s no way I can keep you both separate from it.”

The ten-year-old narrowed her eyes and finally nodded. “What is going on at Southside High that they need to close it?” she asked. Jughead looked down to hide a smile. His sister, Asker of Hard Questions and Almighty Changer of Subjects.

FP Jones shot his kids a look, not fooled by either of them, and ran his fingers through his thinning hair. “If I had to guess, more of the same from when I was there.” At JB’s expectant expression, he groaned. “Drugs. Guns. Gangs. Nothing good, that's for sure. If it came from the Southside, it's not good.”

Jughead shared a look with his sister, and she gave him her sneaky smile. His turn to halt the maudlin spiral then. “I don’t know, Dad,” he drawled. “You came out of the Southside. And since we came from you – thanks for that, by the way – and we’re pretty much the coolest ever, good things _do_ come out of the Southside.”

FP huffed a damp laugh, and both his kids pretended not to see him wipe his eyes. He pulled Jughead into a fierce one-armed hug and whispered, “You’re welcome.” Then he promptly ruined the good mood by roughly messing with Jug’s hair. Jughead yelped and launched into a tussle. Like always, he couldn’t win, but since he ended held tightly against his dad’s chest, he found it hard to care.

His dad knocked him lightly against the back of his head and whispered, “Smartass,” in his ear. Then he glanced at the clock. “Ten minutes, Beanie Baby,” Dad warned and hustled to fill his thermos with rest of the coffee. “You walking with Archie today?” he asked over his shoulder.

Jellybean smiled at Jughead through her last mouthful of bacon oatmeal. “Arch has morning practice for basketball,” Jughead reminded him, for the twentieth time that week.

“Right, well, get a move on so you can shower before you leave,” Dad teased. “Wouldn’t want that rank stench to lure a cute Serpent girl in, now would we?”

Jughead rolled his eyes and finished his coffee, grabbing the last of the bacon on his way out. “I’ll take care of Hotdog and lock up. You two get a move on.”

“Thanks, kid,” his dad called, the sounds of keys rattling and Jellybean’s chattering about Pink Floyd cutting off with the close of the front door.

Mornings without Mom weren’t so bad after all.

 

_Betty couldn’t decide if mornings with her mom were the best or the worst._

_She tightened her hair in front of the mirror and swept the last loose strands up above the undercut. She barely remembered what her hair had looked like two years ago, and as she rummaged in her pockets for her bandana, she couldn’t bring herself to care._

_“You know I never wanted this for you.”_

_Betty saw her mother in the mirror, leaning against the wall by the kitchen. Bags hung beneath Alice’s eyes in blues and purples, but her gaze was clear and her body was steady. Today was one of the good mornings then._

_“Mom, we’ve been over this. I did what I had to do_ _.” Betty yanked the final knot in her bandana with probably more force than necessary. “The system, the motels, or the Serpents were my options, and I'll be damned if I walk away now."_

_Her mother sighed and settled for smoothing the shoulders of Betty’s jacket. “I know, and I don’t say this very often so listen closely.” Alice gripped her shoulders and met her eyes in the mirror. “I never wanted this for you, but now that you’re here, I can’t help being proud of you.”_

_Betty turned in surprise, not trusting the mirror to really show her Alice’s face. “Thanks, Mom,” she breathed._

_Alice stroked her cheek and whispered, “Show no fear, my little hatchling.”_

_“In unity, there is strength,” Betty recited, unable to stop herself from leaning into her mother’s touch._

_“Be their strength today, Betty. You’ll need a unified front,” Alice confirmed. She retreated, and Betty felt her absence like an open wound. “The Northside is cruel to our kind. Keep our people safe.”_

_Betty nodded, not trusting her mouth to form words. Her mother’s quiet confidence in her was more jarring than her sobriety._

_She swung her bag to lie across her chest and grabbed the keys to her bike. But her mom stopped her at the door with a touch to the shoulder that turned into a hug._

_Maybe mornings with her mom weren’t so bad._

 

Jughead hadn’t been watching where he was going. True crime podcasts when he was half asleep and late for school and he tended to do that. And so it was that entering Riverdale High, Jughead Jones walked into a knot of black jackets and nearly bounced off.

The Southside Serpents’ response was instantaneous. They turned as one to face Jug and to frame the girl he’d bounced off.

Her eyes were cold – and very blue. “Got a problem, preppy?” she asked, gaze pinning him like a bug on a science board.

Jughead almost jumped out of his skin. And instead of saying something intelligent like _No_ or _Not at all, ma’am_ , his smartass mouth jumped to, “Not a preppie.”

She hadn’t expected that response. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. “See this?” he gestured to his clothes. “Artist. Weirdo. Lone wolf.”

The girl eyed him, and Jughead fought not to squirm. Finally, the flint in her gaze relaxed and she shrugged. “Betty Cooper.”

“Jughead Jones.”

She nodded to him and strode away, the rest of the Serpents falling in behind her, their amused grins following him all the way to class.

 

_It took Cheryl Blossom a whole week to confront her._

_In true Northsider style, she swept down the school staircase, red curls arranged just so, and pronounced, “Where are you going, Cooper? Trash bins are that way.”_

_“Maybe you should visit the recycling bins, Cheryl,” Betty drawled. “Might find some halfway decent insults there.”_

_The redhead glared. “Betty Cooper, you are no better than gutter filth. Rather like your sister, I think.” She raised her voice to speak to the gathering crowd. “Tell me, Riverdale students, are we going to accept the uncouth and malicious presence of these lower-class criminals?”_

_“Accept or don’t accept all you want, Cheryl,” Betty interjected. “But my sister you so generously pointed out is married to your brother. So I wonder—what does that make you?”_

_Cheryl puffed up indignantly. “Your succubus of a sister corrupted my Jay-Jay—”_

_Betty snorted. “Hardly seemed corrupted the last time I saw them.” At Cheryl’s start, Betty pressed, “Oh you haven’t seen them? What, they don’t want to see you?” She gave a stage gasp. “Then I’m glad to tell you they’re doing really well. They’re finishing their GEDs, the babies are healthy, and they’re much happier without your toxic Northside_ bullshit _.”_

_She was inches from Cheryl’s face, and for a second, she thought the redhead would slap her. Instead something crumpled inside the other girl. Betty knocked past her, leaving the redhead looking like the best news of her life had just sucker punched her._

The Serpents always roamed the hallways in a circling group of watchfulness, Betty a juggernaut at the head with ice eyes for anyone who stood in her way. Through consistent homework help and several well-placed punchlines, Jughead had found himself allowed to move the halls with them, trailing at the back or the middle of their pack. He may have taken some opportunities to flip off wrestlers who’d jumped him in the past, but hey, being a decent human being paid off in the end and he was going to milk this for all it was worth.

Today, though—today the Serpents moved like the tide and broke against a blockade of letter-jacketed football players. Jughead was relieved, for a change, that Archie was probably making out with Veronica in the music room.

Betty stepped forward to stand before Reggie Mantle, the blonde a good eight inches shorter than him even in her combat boots. “Move, Reggie,” she deadpanned.

Reggie smiled. “Ask nicely.”

Several of the Serpents growled behind Betty, and Jughead moved around the group to get a better position. Betty’s face could have frozen magma. “That _was_ me asking nicely, Mantle,” she seethed. “Now move, or be moved. We have class to get to.”

“Not you, you don’t,” he crowed. “We don’t want your Southside shit here!” he announced loudly, and the players around him all hooted. Out of the corner of his eye, Jughead saw every Riverdale student take a step back. Reggie moved forward to crowd Betty’s space. “Get out of my school and go back to back to the slut mobile you came from.”

Only the hand Betty held up stopped the Serpents from jumping him right then and there. “Why don’t you make me?” she challenged. “Right here, right now. No holds barred, hand-to-hand, you and me.” Now she was the one advancing and Reggie was taking surprised steps back. “Don’t tell me it wouldn’t satisfy your pride to beat a challenger in a fight. Big strapping man like you,” she sneered, her mouth twisted in a sick semblance of a smile. “You win, we leave. I win, you concede.”

“I might bang girls,” Reggie leered, bending to loom over Betty. “But I don’t hit them.” Jughead rolled his eyes. Dude had some nerve—or a death wish. _Then again, with Reggie’s limited brain space, he probably can’t tell the difference._

Betty’s snarl relaxed into a laser-focus cobra gaze. “Alright,” she challenged, shrugging off her Serpent jacket and tossing it to one of the other gang girls. “Try.”

Reggie laughed. “To bang you? Buy me dinner first.”

Jughead started moving to get in between the two, but seeing all the Serpents backing away to give Betty room pulled him up short. She’d done this before, and from their smirks, he could guess the outcome.

“No,” she corrected, a sickly-sweet smile filling her face. “Try to hit me.” When Reggie looked ready to back up, she turned to the rapidly forming audience. “Look at this, everybody! Big strong football player scared of a little girl. Come on, _Reggie_ ,” she purred. “What’s the problem? Scared you’d lose?”

There it was.

Reggie snarled and swung a roundhouse. The punch was nearing Betty’s head, and Betty—Betty _moved_ , and Reggie was curled in around his stomach, wheezing. Ohhhs erupted from onlookers on each side.

“Come on, preppie,” she taunted, shoving him lightly. “A little lovetap hurt your big boy feelings?”

He straightened and launched a flurry of jabs. Betty dodged all but the last which she left hanging to grab, duck under, and use as leverage, slamming Reggie to the floor. Jughead winced. That was Reggie’s throwing arm, and he was sure Betty knew it.

“Come on, _captain_ ,” she jeered, eyes acidic. “That all you got?”

She let up pressure and backed up, poisonous intent pulsing from her every muscle. The Bulldog rose up looking ready to do murder. But he’d obviously learned a lesson – _and here we thought the Neanderthal couldn’t learn anything but football plays_ – and he started circling, hands up in front of his face.

Betty mirrored his traveling, her fingers fluttering at her sides. She started back in, needling, “Big, strong momma’s boy like you? You’re barely worth the dirt on my boots. That’s all we are to you, isn’t it?” She pitched her voice to carry to the crowd around her. “The speck of dirt on your perfect shoes? Invaders on your pitiful excuse for territory? Degenerates? Worthless excuses for humanity?” And she was back on Reggie. “A threat to your fragile male ego?”

Some Riverdale girls started snapping for Betty, but Jughead couldn’t pull his eyes from the evisceration taking place in front of him to see who had flipped to Betty’s side.

Betty looked every inch a snake – proud, poised, and utterly poisonous. Jughead felt a swoop of anticipation as she gestured a _come on_ to the football player. “Bring it, _Northsider_. Prove your superiority. Right here. Right now.” She curled her lip and hissed, and the Serpents and Southsiders in the crowd around joined, scenting the blood in the water. Betty smiled sweetly at the sound, and wasn’t _that_ the most terrifying thing Jughead had ever seen. Her eyes sparked, and she sighed, “You poor, poor coward. Scared of a _girl_.”

That broke the last of Reggie’s self-control, and he charged at Betty with a roar.

He didn’t stand a chance.

Betty kneed, kicked, elbowed and punched Reggie, three steps ahead of him the whole way. When the Bulldog was wobbling, black eyes blooming and blood trickling from his mouth, she ducked in to punch his solar plexus, bang his head against her rising knee, and shove his shoulders to send him crashing to the floor.

She circled him, Riverdale students backing up as she challenged her onlookers. “Anyone else want to contest the Serpents’ place here?” She opened her arms. “Come on, anyone! I’m open to challenges for the title of Riverdale’s Queen Bitch.”

“That’s enough, Ms. Cooper,” Weatherbee’s voice rang out. “You’ve proved your point.” Jughead needed only a glance to see the principal wasn’t fucking around. “My office. _Now_.”

Betty accepted her jacket back from the Serpents and shrugged it on with a toss of her hair. She sent the rest of the Serpents on with a jerk of her head, and she sauntered after the principal.

Jughead watched her exit, mesmerized, until one of the Serpents – Toni? – stepped in to block his view. He backed up a little, and she smiled winningly. “Don’t worry, Jughead, I won’t bite.” He raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. She smiled a little more genuinely. “I really won’t. But Betty might. And the Serpents could definitely be incentivized to tear a new one for the poor bastard who hurts our fearless leader’s heart.”

“I don’t know her that well,” Jughead admitted cautiously, still unconvinced she wouldn’t bite, “but does she know you’re talking to me right now? And that’s not a challenge – I’m asking honestly,” he clarified in a rush. “She just doesn’t strike me as someone who lets another fight her battles.”

Toni’s smile suggested Jug had passed some kind of test. “Every leader needs to make concessions. This is hers to us. Besides,” she smirked, “she’s got better things to do than haze potential boyfriends.”

“Like giving football players the put-down they so desperately need?” Jughead joked, with honest admiration. His heart stopped, and he yelped, “Wait, _boyfriends_?” 

Toni rolled her eyes with a groan of  _Boys_ and looked at him fondly. He’d passed another test.

Jughead held her gaze as best he could.

“I’m just saying,” the purple-haired teen shrugged at last. “She’s a Serpent – you willing to dance with that? Make sure you think long and hard before you make good on that moonstruck look in your eye.”

Jug squawked, affronted. “I do not look moonstruck!”

She burst out laughing. “You can hang, Jughead Jones.” As she backed away to go to class, she stage-whispered, “ _Moonstruck_ ,” and blew him a kiss.

He shook his head, smiling like a lunatic, and headed to class.

 

_Betty wasn’t sure when Jughead Jones had become a fixture with the Serpent crew, but she did wonder how they’d ever survived without him. He didn’t know it, but his deadpan quips and sardonic recoveries had gone a long way to defusing the tensions between the Riverdale and Southside groups. Betty knew it, the Serpents knew it. And they knew they owed him for it._

_Fangs had been the one to ask what they’d all been wondering. “You ever think about joining us, man?” he’d asked. “We’d have your back to infinity and beyond.”_

_(The weekend before, Jug had hung a sheet in his backyard and showed them all Toy Story 3. Fangs had lit up in ways Betty had never seen.)_

_Jughead had given his quirk of a smile and said, “Dude, I’m not Superman - I can’t protect your grades_ and _your life!” Everybody had laughed and that was that._

_And here they were, at his kitchen island, teasing and bickering together as they studied. Jughead seemed to be in his element, fixing coffee, throwing teabags at those too weak for his holy bean juice, and helping anyone struggling with homework._

_Betty had always been the point person for the Southside Serpents when it came to numbers, but anything to do with words had escaped her ability to help. Writing had come as naturally to her as mechanics, but unlike mechanics where you could show an engine and explain how it wasn’t working, words left her frustrated._

_Enter Jughead Jones. Writer, researcher, movie buff, voracious reader, and scrawny, all-around nerd. Not the hero they deserved (they all knew Serpents didn’t get happy endings), but definitely the hero they needed._

_So when they heard his front door open, they all froze._

_“Jughead?” the Serpents heard a man call._

_The teen in question relaxed and said, “It’s just my dad.”_

_They’d all relaxed a little, but not fully. Mr. Jones was technically an unknown quantity. Betty crept after Jughead, snapping to the Serpents to get them back to studying._

_“—there Serpents jackets in my living room?”_

_“It’s a study group. And why are you home so early?”_

_“Jellybean has that coding club in Greendale tonight. Needed to get some food together before we hit the road. Nice dodge on my question, by the way. Serpents, Jug?”_

_Betty stepped out, and Jughead’s dad went pale as a sheet, looking as if he'd seen a ghost. Betty approached slowly but steadily, trying to hide how unnerved his reaction had made her. “He’s our friend, Mr. Jones," she promised, "and we kinda need him if any of us are gonna graduate high school.”_

_Mr. Jones had raised his eyebrows just like Jug did when he was surprised but not convinced –_ and wasn’t that a thing to realize in a potentially dangerous situation – _but he’d nodded for her to go on, so he couldn’t be too bad._

_“We’d been studying at my trailer,” Betty explained, “but we lost our internet a month ago.” It had been a year ago, but they’d found ways to piggyback wifi and share devices so they could at least rotate internet access. “Jughead was generous enough to loan us your kitchen and his help with homework.”_

_FP Jones looked appraisingly at his son._

_“All of them have to get their diplomas,” Jughead explained. “Betty’s mom’s kind of crazy about it.”_

_Then Mr. Jones had rolled his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, and muttered, “Same old Alice."_

_Betty and Jughead exchanged a quick look._ What in the world was going on?

_FP pointed at his son, saying, “Warn my next time you do something like this, Juggy. Curfew is still the same for you – friends out of the house at ten and lights out at eleven.”_

_Betty could feel Jug wanting to smile and resisted elbowing him. The two of them texted and wrote together now more often than they didn’t, often well past one in the morning. Jughead was a fun writing partner and as snappy over text as he was in person._

_Juggy showed surprising restraint when he clicked his heels and answered with, “Sir, yes, sir.” FP smacked him playfully on his beanie and nodded to Betty before crossing to the kitchen._

_Betty’ and Jughead’s frantically whispered confusion was interrupted only by FP’s yell of, “Coffee, Jug? At five in the afternoon?”_

_The beanied teen had mock-grimaced, leaving Betty to follow him, giggling, into the kitchen._

_That afternoon was all Betty had to explain why FP Jones had showed up at the trailer at midnight_ _to talk to her mom._

_“If he puts on a jacket, Alice, I swear to God—"_

_“You’ll what? What, FP?” her mother snapped. “Remove him from the first real friend group he’s had?” Mr. Jones must have started to say something because her mother cut him off with her voice, saying, “He hasn’t been at the Wyrm. I went into school the other day to talk to all their teachers and saw him hanging with my hatchlings, and he looked_ happy _. Their grades, by the way, have all started climbing since he began tutoring them. That is a debt I will never be able to repay, and for that you and your son have my thanks.”_

_That was her mom, the Queen Cobra._

_“If they ever—If you ever offer—"_

_“They’ve already offered,” she interrupted. “And he turned them down.” There was silence, and Betty imagined her mom gripping FP’s shoulders. “They love him, FP. And they will protect him with everything they have, Serpent or no. If you’re really worried their association could hurt him, I’ll tell them you were one of us. No one would come within an inch of him or your house without their say-so.”_

_Betty’s jaw dropped. FP had been a Serpent? With her_ mom _?_

_Alice was inexplicably on the verge of tears. “He looks so much like you, F. And you— You_ bastard _." Betty heard the sound of her mother's hands smacking Mr. Jones' body. "You might have left us, left_ me _, but I am a Serpent and I will always protect my own.”_

_“I won’t have my kid make the same mistakes we did.”_

_“They weren’t all mistakes, F!”_

_Betty couldn’t hear FP’s reply, but she didn't have to strain to hear her mom holler, “You do not get to march in here and start making demands, Forsythe!_ _Twenty years it’s been since we talked, and you think you have the power to make demands?”_

_Her voice dropped to frigid tones. “And while I am not a perfect parent, I happen to respect my children’s intelligence and the choices they make. So get off your high horse before I knock you off.”_

_Again she couldn’t hear FP, but her mom’s voice snapped like a whip. “Betty took the initiation when I was in prison and couldn’t talk her out of it. I don’t like her choice – hate it even – but I respect it. Funny. I can’t seem to say the same for you.”_

_Alice must have started crying because she gasped out, “I sometimes think she’s the only good thing I’ve ever done.” Alice’s next words were probably muffled in FP’s flannel because Betty could only hear the low murmur of his voice._

_The next thing Betty heard was a truck revving up and the front door slam. She pressed her head against the bedroom window, hearing her mom rummage through the cupboards for the tequila. Tomorrow morning was going to be bad._

 

Jughead stared at his phone and then stared at it some more.

_> > Your dad and my mom were in the Serpents together._

His dad had been a Serpent? No wonder he’d been so shaken seeing the study group. And holy shit, had he been seeing Alice when he looked at Betty? All Jug managed to type back was:

>> How’d you find out?

Betty’s response was immediate.

_> > They just had a big fight here._

Dad’s pickup was pulling into the driveway. Jughead would have to ask him about this in the morning. He narrowed his eyes, looking for the right words, and decided to go with his gut.

>> How are you feeling?

_> > Pissed off. Confused. Scared._

_> > But happy too. _

_> > You’re one of us, Jug, even if you never take the jacket. You’ve always been one of us._

_> > But you should have heard him. He was SCARED, Juggy. Scared of my mom, scared of me, scared of what we’re doing to you._

_> > I’m worried he’ll take you away from us. _

Jughead couldn’t stop the smile that threatened to burst out of him. This was a serious conversation and not a time to be excited by his crush saying she valued him.

>> There is not a force on this world strong enough to stop me being friends with you, Betty Cooper

_> > Not even my mom?_

And couldn’t he just see the Look she’d have given him if they’d been in the same room. He smirked and texted back:

>> Whaaaaat. Nah. She loves me.

_> > She totally does XD_

_> > Should have heard the way she was talking about you to your dad. She would make you a Serpent in a heartbeat if you wanted it. She really values your tutoring us._

Then it hit Jughead like a ton of bricks. This was it.

He tugged his hair hoping it would make words explode from his brain and then wrote and re-wrote and then tugged his hair some more. He eventually threw artistry out the window and told Betty the truth.

>> I would join the Serpents for you, Betty Cooper. I want to be a part of your life however I can.

The wait for her text was agonizing.

_> > Jug, you don’t have join the Serpents for that. I want to be a part of your life too._

_> > Even if it meant leaving the Serpents_

_> > I think I’d do it._

Jughead couldn’t breathe. When his thoughts had settled down a little, he typed out:

>> God, Betty. You and me – in it together, yeah?

>> And this is all like thirty bridges away, so we’ll cross it when we come to it.

>> Sooo….One day at a time?

_> > :) One day at a time._

 

The next day at school, Betty Cooper, Southside Serpent and Badass Extraordinaire, wrapped an arm around the waist of Jughead Jones, Film Geek and Writer-To-Be, and whispered something in his ear. Whatever she’d said made him smile in a way he never had before, and, to the raucous cheers of the Serpents, lean down and kiss her.

**Author's Note:**

> I am so far down the Riverdale rabbit hole I've lost all awareness of time and space. I have written over 10K words of Bughead fanfiction in the last four days, and I don't know where it's coming from. Anyway, thanks for reading all the way to the bottom. Here's a little extra Bughead for a reward! :D
> 
> What Betty whispers to Jug at the end is, "It has been coming on so gradually that I hardly know when it began," which is from Pride & Prejudice, which she read because he asked her to. They'll probably watch the 6 hour movie with Jellybean now that they're together and cuddle and be happy teenagers in love.


End file.
